Teacher attrition and vacancies at North Carolina schools held steady in the 2024-25 school year. But this year’s State of the Teaching Profession report highlights the continued challenges of retaining early-career teachers.
The attrition rate rose a fraction of a percentage point to 10.1%, but Department of Public Instruction officials described the increase as “not substantive.”
But the attrition rate was higher for teachers with more than 30 years experience — largely representing retirements — and more notably for teachers with 1 to 5 years of experience, who were leaving the profession at rates ranging from 14% to 18%.
State Board of Education Chair Eric Davis spoke of the importance of improving support for teachers and principals.
“I think it’s a whole mindset change, from just looking at information and how can we tweak it a bit, to how can we create the best teacher and principal support program in the nation,” Davis said. “That’s the challenge we’ve got to step it up to meet.”
The state board also heard a report on the state’s teacher pipeline, with state officials noting that for every five teachers who enter an Educator Preparation Program, only two will complete the program and be teaching effectively within a year, and eight teachers will leave the program.
The teacher vacancy rate also held steady, dropping slightly from 7.4% to 7.2% this year.
As of the 40th day of the school year, there were 6,721 vacant teaching positions across North Carolina schools. Of those, a majority are being filled by teachers on temporary or provisional licenses. About 1,000 are completely unfilled.
But this year’s report also shows there were around 2,600 fewer teaching positions across North Carolina schools overall, as some school staffs shrank.
